Together
by Bandearg Rois
Summary: series of one-shots about Danny and Rusty, DannyandRusty, and Daniel and Robert. various POV, follows movies pretty closely when needed. spans before O11 to after O13


Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just borrow them and they might be thinking of a way to con me right now but it's okay, at least I got them for a little while.

A/N: I thought this up while reading 'The More Things Change' by otherhawk, which is amazing and sad and wonderful.

Summary: DannyandRusty had been and always would be DannyandRusty... right?

Everyone thought they were telepathic, even she did. And every time it came up they laughed. They didn't need telepathy; there was a reason no one ever thought of them as one without the other. They'd been DannyandRusty so long, no one but Reuben and Saul even knew a time they hadn't been. A time when they didn't know each other almost better than they knew themselves. But there had been a time, once, had to have been, really, and their laughter when it came up wasn't quite as easy, as normal, because they _had_ been separate, once upon a time. Granted that had been sometime around when Linus had been in grade school, but it was always there.

Danny had once been just Daniel Ocean, a cheat and a con-man who Reuben rescued from destruction. And Rusty had once been Rob Ryan, rescued from the New York streets by Saul who had something more than a tired, pretty face with a penchant for counting cards when he wasn't counting johns. And she never heard about any of it, and they never talked about it, even when they did, because they didn't need to. History was history, and once they'd found each other (Reuben was a Godsend), they didn't need it anymore.

They had wine and Oprah, and Happy Days, and pizza. And if they both holed up in a hotel room once or twice a year with whiskey and chocolate and tears, there wasn't anything wrong with that. But all of that was before her, and during her, and it would continue long after her. Even after Danny found her the first time, the only thing that changed was the dates, the whiskey was always there, and the chocolate. She'd never known about the tears until... but that came later, much later. She knew, and she didn't understand (but she didn't need to, right?) but she accepted, had no idea, not really, that those nights were for Daniel and Rob, not DannyandRusty. But that was okay, because she didn't need to.

And when Danny went downstate Jersey, if Rusty stopped drinking whiskey and mostly stopped with the wine, and Oprah and Happy Days went out the window, no one wondered why. And at the time, she told herself she didn't care. And no one wondered why Danny went to Frank to find Rusty, why he didn't stay and chat past the words 'Hollywood' and the name of the club. Because they were DannyandRusty and RustyandDanny, and no one could understand. People tried, said things, thigs that made the three of them giggle like teenage girls (because sex was ever in that equation). And even Reuben had said something, after they all found out she was with Benedict.

But that wasn't it either. Rusty wasn't jealous of her, and she knew it, never had been. She found out that even after he pulled Danny he set things up for them so they had a chance. Because for all that they were DannyandRusty, Danny had needed her, and Rusty knew that. And when Benedict had been in their house, with her, she knew that Rusty would have cheerfully commited murder if it would have helped her. And not even she knew why that was, why Rusty wasn't jealous, but when he brought Isabel to the game, the understanding came. That Danny had helped give them a chance, and that Isabel was Rusty's Tess, and Danny would do the same, commit murder to protect her.

And when Reuben had gotten double crossed and checked out of reality, Danny was the one to get Rusty, even though Frank was closer, because Danny pulling Rusty wasn't strange to anyone, because maybe Isabel understood them better than she did. And neither Danny nor Rusty had told either of them what was going on, never told them anything. Because it was DannyandRusty, neither of them asked. Both of them knew it was Reuben, and that Reuben and Saul were like the hotel nights, not to be questioned or explained.

So when she overheard a conversation that was nothing more than half-sentences and pain, and Danny suddenly had a red-eye to London, to Rusty and Saul, she never asked, not even when Danny sent the plane for her two days later with no explanation. Saul was gone, Isabel long gone, the latter slipping away without warning, and the former just... gone. So no questions were asked when Rusty came home with them. She moved into the guest room for 3 months, until Rusty was himself again, ignored the sobs but stocked up on whiskey and chocolate and Kleenex.

Then Rusty disappeared, went to ground so deep that not even Danny could find him while he was in one place. A year of letters from around the world, chocolates sent from every confectioner in Europe, whiskey from every brewery, and seasons of Happy Days in every language. And then he was back, looking just a little more jagged than even Danny had seen before (she could tell from Danny's eyes), not Rusty but Rusty even then. She couldn't compete, had never wanted to before, still didn't, just wanted to disappear even as she knew she never would. If she left, DannyandRusty would shatter, so she stayed.

But when Reuben was dying and Danny turned to Rusty, she couldn't stay, was gone even before she left, even if she didn't leave the ring until Danny disapperaed. And so TessandDannyandRusty (because it couldn't be any other way but Danny in the middle) fell apart, like a bad melody, DannyandRusty survived, she that was how it was supposed to be wasn't it?

A/N: Does anyone want the story of Reuben and Saul's ends? I have both of them written, along with the year-long disappearances and their stories before they met, and I'll probably even have their first meeting written somewhere in that too.

Also, does anyone not understand the POV? I treid to make it obvious without being obvious, but I don't think I made it. It was Tess.

Anyway, Bon seur, and review, cie vu plaise?


End file.
